At least 1 dead after severe storms roll through Louisiana, other southern states - American Press | American Press

At least 1 dead after severe storms roll through Louisiana, other southern states

Published 9:15 am Tuesday, May 14, 2024

At least one person is dead in Louisiana after storms slammed several southern states, including many areas previously hit during one of the most active periods for twisters on record.

The death happened near the town of Henderson, St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux and Henderson Mayor Sherbin Collette both confirmed on social media. They said a tornado appeared to have struck the area, but gave no details of how the person died. Henderson is about 100 mileswest of New Orleans.

More than 60,000 customers in Louisiana were without power Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

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Some of the worst weather Monday was in the Florida Panhandle, where a tornado watch was in effect. Roads flooded and stalled vehicles in Escambia County, the National Weather Service reported. There were also flash flood warnings for Alabama’s Gulf Coast, where more than 3 inches of rain had fallen.

Florida and parts of south Georgia were again under the threat of severe weather Tuesday, with tornadoes still possible, according to the national Storm Prediction Center. Another area at risk of storms Tuesday covered parts of Tennessee, north Georgia and north Alabama.

Monday’s storms came shortly after one of the most active periods of severe weather in U.S. history, from April 25 through May 10, the National Weather Service said in a recent report. At least 267 tornadoes were confirmed by the weather service during that time, the agency said.

Among the many tornadoes: a pair of twisters that caused heavy damage Friday in Florida’s capital, Tallahassee. As the two tornadoes crossed the city from east to west, they damaged homes and businesses, caused a construction crane to collapse, and severely damaged the outfield fence at a baseball stadium at Florida State University, the weather service said.